Where Have We Come Up To?

Chapter 20:- Lies!

It was him! Him! The person I distanced myself from...the person who didn't have any faith on me...the person I thought I could no longer trust on. The gift Ranima had for us was a painting of Faisal and I. Dressed in royal attires, he had his hand over my shoulder, and I was sticking close to him.

"Yeh hain bhavi Maharana aur Maharani!" Ranima proudly announced, staggering me. I still refused to accept the fact laid in front of me. How could this be possible? How could Faisal and I be Pratap and Ajabde? How could RoSal actually turn out to be PrAja. This was probably just a dream, just an imagination, maybe a hallucination. But this was definitely not reality. This couldn't be.

"Kaise laga aapko humara uphaar Ajabde?" Maharani Jaiwanta bai asked me in anticipation.

"Ati-ati sundar Ranima!" I trembled. "Parantu, yeh kaun hai?" I questioned, fearing the answer.

"Ajabde, aap kaise prashn poonch rahi hain..yeh Pratap hai, aur kaun?" she replied sarcastically. I observed the 'Pratap' in front of me. The grin, the sparkle in his eyes, the possessiveness, the protectiveness, everything could be seen in him. He was exactly like Faisal. Or I should say, Faisal was exactly like Kunwar Pratap.

"Nahi, yeh sambhav nahi....yeh asambhav hai Ranima!" I shook my head in disbelief.

"Kya?! Yeh aap kya keh rahi hain Ajabde.."

"Hum Ajabde nahi hain...nahi hain hum Kunwarani Mewar ki!" I interrupted hastily.

"Aur yeh.." I said pointing at Faisal. "Yeh Kunwar Pratap nahi, yeh Faisal hai. Aap Rajshree di ho, Maharani Jaiwanta bai nahi!" I exclaimed, stepping back with each word. But she continued to smile, and it was annoying me. Everything was. The jewelry, the heavy clothing, the continuous tingling of my payals...the fact that Faisal and I resembled someone we enacted weeks ago.

"Aap muskura kyun rahi hai? Hum keh rahe hain na..yeh sab asatya hai.." I hollered at the top of my lungs. I continued to step back and suddenly realized that I was losing balance. I had an instinct as if I was about to fall into a deep, dark pit. And that is what happened.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!" I screamed as loudly as I could.Pitch. Black.    

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